Newly decoded secret documents reveal the mindset of the IRA between 1920 & 1960. Historian, Thomas Mahon, with the aid of cryptologist & code breaker, Jim Gillogly, has spent the past few years breaking the IRA's secret communications code, used to pass messages back & forth between Ireland & America from the 1920s until the 1960s
- the results are explosive. From discussions about mundane matters to considerations of deals with the USSR & China, the IRA letters delve into just about every matter conceivable for a paramilitary organisation. Some of the ideas are mundane discussions about money & the likelihood of infiltration but others, like the proposal to source gas for use in Irel&, are a dangerous & unnerving insight into how the organisation saw itself & conducted its business in secrecy. With the eye of a historian & the tools of a professional code breaker, Thomas & Jim have together created a wonderful & engrossing read.